Latest news with #January6th
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Alex Marquardt Says He's Leaving CNN After 8 Years
Alex Marquardt, chief national security correspondent at CNN, says that he's leaving the network after eight years. He wrote on X, 'Some personal news: I'm leaving CNN after 8 terrific years. Tough to say goodbye but it's been an honor to work among the very best in the business. Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team & the phenomenal teammates I've worked with in the US and abroad.' More from Deadline New York Times Defends Report On Elon Musk's Drug Use, Says He's "Lashing Out Because He Doesn't Like Our Article" Tom Llamas Lays Out His Plans For 'NBC Nightly News': "We're Going To Run Our Own Race, And I Think That's How You Get To Number One" In Da Anti-Clemency Club: No Sean "Diddy" Combs Pardon From Trump, 50 Cent Vows Marquardt did not identify his next career move. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment. Marquardt testified earlier this year in a defamation trial against the network in a lawsuit brought by a security consultant, Zachary Young. He was featured in Marquardt's 2021 report on the exorbitant fees being demanded on the black market to evacuate Afghans during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal. In one instance, Young's image appeared on screen with the chyron, 'Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.' The judge had left it up to the jury to decide whether the use of the term 'black market' meant illegal or criminal activity. A jury found the network liable for defamation and awarded him $5 million. The network then reached a settlement as the trial was to enter its next phase. A CNN spokesperson said at the time, 'We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case.' Marquardt has covered a range of national security and foreign policy stories, and was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in 2022. He also covered the January 6th insurrection and the Black Lives Matter protests. Before CNN, he was foreign correspondent for ABC News based in Moscow, Jerusalem, Beirut and London. During an earlier stint with CNN, he was an embed reporter during the 2008 presidential election. Marquardt has won multiple awards, including Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards, for an undercover investigation of underage sex trafficking in the Phillippines. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Whataboutism Is Rotting Our Brains, Our Consciences, and Our Politics
BEFORE WE CAN ADEQUATELY RESPOND to the frontal assault Donald Trump has launched on our way of life, we need to grapple with whataboutism. It is destroying our capacity to make rational judgments. In the face of an unprecedented defiance of law, tradition, and the Constitution, too many of us find ourselves so mired in polarized thinking that we can't see straight. Humans have always been beguiled by black-and-white thinking. Something is either good or bad. You are either with us or against us. Greek or barbarian. Saved or damned. Sigmund Freud coined the term 'Madonna/whore complex' to describe the mindset of men who relegate women into one of two categories: pure or sullied. A related error in logic is called 'tu quoque' (you too), a form of the ad hominem fallacy because it attacks the person rather than disproving their argument—which should sound familiar to anyone who's lived through the past few years of American politics. The tendency to engage in polarized thinking is hardly new, and yet, it seems that we've regressed in recent years. We live in an age of overflowing information and knowledge, and yet we seem more inclined now than in the recent past to succumb to whataboutism. It's perfectly clear why Trump and his many enablers rely on whataboutism. It's the easiest deflection. What is the proper response to Trump's iniquitous treatment of women? What about Bill Clinton? How can one evaluate his pardons of the January 6th insurrectionists? What about all those who rioted in protest of George Floyd's murder and were never prosecuted? (They were.) Was Trump's refusal to return highly classified documents a serious breach? What about Joe Biden keeping files in his garage? (Biden returned them when asked.) Is Trump corrupting the rule of law with his pardons of friends, donors, and political allies? What about Joe Biden's pardons of Hunter and his entire family? We don't do whataboutism at The Bulwark. We don't have partisan loyalties or ulterior motives. We just tell you what we really think. Join us. This game can be played endlessly, and it has been played aggressively for the past decade. It's important to dwell on the consequences. Some people who are caught in a lie, betrayal, or other transgression admit their guilt and seek to repair the damage. That's how mature people and societies stay civilized. Truly depraved people don't take that route. Trump uses whataboutism not just to change the subject or disarm the accuser ('tu quoque' was pretty much the theme of the 2016 presidential race) but also to breed cynicism. If 'everybody does it' then it's unfair to hold him accountable. And because people who constantly transgress can't function with the knowledge that they are immoral, they must believe—and teach—that everyone is just as corrupt as they are; that the standards themselves are flawed or at least universally flouted. Does a mafia don tell his daughter that he's a criminal, or does he explain that the world is composed of killers and losers and that you must choose one or the other? Though Americans are sometimes perceived as idealistic, there are other strains in our character that demagogues can tap into, such as cynicism about politics. A line perhaps inaccurately attributed to Mark Twain has been a staple of after-dinner speeches for more than 150 years: 'America has no native criminal class, except Congress.' Or as a more modern wag put it: 'Politics comes from the Greek 'poly' (many) and 'ticks' (small, annoying bloodsuckers).' A certain amount of skepticism about politicians is healthy. But cynicism is corrosive because it invites the very thing it scorns. Once you elect a sociopath and agree with his jaundiced view that everyone is corrupt, you've lost any chance of upholding basic values. If you treasure honesty, integrity, the rule of law, and decency, you must be prepared to reject whataboutism and to risk mockery by insisting that no, not everybody does it, and we don't want to accept the kind of society in which that is assumed. As David Frum outlined in the Atlantic: Nothing like this has been attempted or even imagined in the history of the American presidency. Throw away the history books; discard feeble comparisons to scandals of the past. There is no analogy with any previous action by any past president. The brazenness of the self-enrichment resembles nothing seen in any earlier White House. This is American corruption on the scale of a post-Soviet republic or a postcolonial African dictatorship. Trump's corruption is so off the charts (a Qatari luxury jet, hundreds of millions in memecoins and tokens, bidding wars to dine with him as his club) that it defies comparison. Through the memecoin, anyone anywhere for any reason can put hundreds, or thousands, or millions of dollars directly into Trump's pocket. Not into a campaign fund, not into a political party, but into the hands of the president. And as we witnessed on his Middle East trip, eager foreign leaders and businessmen are lining up to do so. Vietnam, hoping for relief from tariffs, is in talks to help Trump build a luxury golf course. Due almost entirely to his crypto holdings, Trump has, by one estimate, doubled his net worth in just four months. Share The Constitution could not be clearer. Article I, Section 9 reads: 'No title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign state.' Are we so cynical that we cannot summon outrage at a flagrant disregard for our founding document? In keeping with the current grab-everything-that-isn't-nailed-down ethos, the Trump administration announced last month that it was disbanding the Justice Department unit devoted to ferreting out crypto crime, and the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped an investigation into one of Trump's largest donors—the one who donated top dollar (or memecoin) to have dinner with Trump at his country club outside D.C. Yes, Biden's pardons of his family were grubby, but they were a few pebbles compared with Trump's avalanche of corruption. The current president is signaling with his pardons that anti-democratic violence is encouraged if undertaken on his behalf, and that no action, not even murder, is beyond redemption if you are in his camp. He has pardoned a corrupt thief who happened to be the son of a big donor, granted a 'FULL AND Unconditional Pardon' to a Virginia sheriff who was convicted of selling government offices but who was redeemed by his Trump loyalty. The family of Ashli Babbitt, who violently stormed the Capitol and was shot by police, received a generous payout from the Trump-controlled government. Murderers, politicos on the take, swindlers, thieving reality TV stars, gangsters—all have been pardoned by Trump in the past few weeks. If you're a Trump supporter, you have an honest-to-goodness get-out-of-jail-free card. The Department of Justice's watchword is no longer 'Equal Justice Under Law,' but, in the words of Ed Martin, Trump's newly minted pardon advisor, 'No MAGA left behind.' We must disenthrall ourselves from the whataboutism mindset. There are honorable politicians. There are honest businessmen. There are police and soldiers and teachers and programmers and athletes and judges of integrity. Millions of Americans are appalled and deeply embarrassed by the kakistocracy we've elevated. Hold on to that outrage. It's the road back from this disaster. Share
Black America Web
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
Pardon For Pay: Will Diddy Be The Next Celebrity Pardoned By Trump?
Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty As Donald Trump continues his second term with a controversial string of presidential pardons, the former reality star turned commander-in-chief is now entertaining the idea of possibly granting clemency to embattled hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs. During a recent press conference, Trump was asked whether he would consider pardoning Combs, who is currently on trial in New York facing charges that include sex trafficking, racketeering, and coercion. The former president didn't say no; instead, he left the door wide open. 'First of all, I'd look at what's happening. And I haven't been watching it too closely,' Trump admitted. 'But I know people are thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking.' Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, is currently standing trial after a string of civil lawsuits and a federal indictment painted him as the alleged leader of a violent criminal enterprise; he faces a potential life sentence if convicted on the most serious counts. The charges stem in part from a 2023 civil suit filed by his former partner, singer Cassie Ventura, which alleged years of physical and sexual abuse. Though that lawsuit was quickly settled, it opened a floodgate of accusations from multiple women, prompting a federal investigation. Then, in May 2024, damning security footage surfaced showing Combs attacking Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016. The graphic footage led to Combs issuing an apology, calling his actions 'inexcusable,' though he continues to deny all allegations of sexual assault. Still, Trump seems unbothered by the optics of even floating the idea of a pardon in a case so widely publicized and emotionally charged. 'Whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact,' he said. 'If I think somebody was mistreated, I would look at the facts.' Source: Ron Galella / Getty Trump's comments reignited debate around the use—and abuse—of presidential pardon power. In the first months of his second term, Trump has issued dozens of pardons, including clemency for reality TV personalities Todd and Julie Chrisley, rapper NBA YoungBoy, and a blanket pardon for all January 6th rioters. His track record for celebrity-centric or politically charged pardons has sparked concern about how presidential clemency is being leveraged for personal narratives, culture war fodder, or social media applause. Trump's musings on Diddy's legal future also rekindled public memory of their past relationship. The two were once seen at high-profile events together, including a 2005 gala at Mar-a-Lago and a 2008 U.N. fundraiser. 'He used to really like me a lot,' Trump noted, before implying that their relationship soured after he entered politics. 'I'd read some little bit nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden.' The comments come on the heels of a recent interview with Suge Knight, former CEO of Death Row Records, who also floated the idea that Trump could be Diddy's best shot at clemency. If Trump were to act on it, the move would undoubtedly add to the long and growing list of headline-grabbing pardons that have become a hallmark of his presidential legacy. Still, this is not merely a legal or political story—it's a moral one. The question isn't just whether Trump can pardon Diddy, but whether he should. With multiple women accusing Combs of violent and coercive behavior, a pardon would not only dismiss the severity of the charges but also further erode public trust in the justice system — particularly for victims of sexual violence. And yet, in Trump's America, celebrity, proximity, and popularity often blur the lines between accountability and absolution. As Trump himself said, 'It's not a popularity contest.' But as he also made clear: 'I would certainly look at the facts.' For a president who's never shied away from turning the criminal justice system into a tool of spectacle and loyalty, it wouldn't be surprising if the facts ultimately mattered less than the headlines. The question now is: will Diddy become the next recipient of presidential mercy, serving as another reminder that in this political era, justice often comes with a price tag? SEE ALSO: Report: Elon Musk Allegedly Used Heavy Drugs While Courting Trump Thanks To Donald Trump, The American Dream Is Dead SEE ALSO Pardon For Pay: Will Diddy Be The Next Celebrity Pardoned By Trump? was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Facts matter:' Lester Holt ends ‘NBC Nightly News' tenure
Lester Holt hosted his last 'NBC Nightly News' show on Friday after a 14 year tenure as its anchor. The highly decorated reporter bid viewers a farewell by reminding them of their core values that guide the team's coverage. 'I'm so grateful for your trust around here,. Facts matter, words matter, journalism matters, and you matter,' Holt said. 'Over the last decade, we have shared some dark and harrowing days and nights of our country, the pandemic, mass shootings, natural disasters, each testing our resilience and our compassion. That's why I often like to leave you with something to smile about, moments that reassure and connect us,' he added. Holt announced he would step down in February after covering Trump throughout his first administration and earning praise for his ability to fact-check the leader in real time. He moderated the first presidential debate of 2016, covered January 6th riots and traveled to Israel to provide insight on Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel while anchoring NBC's 'Dateline.' In 2018, a Hollywood Reporter poll found that Holt was the most trusted television news personality in America. 'I will miss the team that puts it all together, my dear friends and my colleagues. But for now, I just want to say thank you to my incredibly supportive and patient family and all of you,' Holt said during his last show. Tom Llamas will succeed Holt as host and concurrently serve as the 'NBC Nightly News' managing editor. 'I wish Tom great success,' Holt said Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
‘Facts matter:' Lester Holt ends ‘NBC Nightly News' tenure
Lester Holt hosted his last 'NBC Nightly News' show on Friday after a 14 year tenure as its anchor. The highly decorated reporter bid viewers a farewell by reminding them of their core values that guide the team's coverage. 'I'm so grateful for your trust around here,. Facts matter, words matter, journalism matters, and you matter,' Holt said. 'Over the last decade, we have shared some dark and harrowing days and nights of our country, the pandemic, mass shootings, natural disasters, each testing our resilience and our compassion. That's why I often like to leave you with something to smile about, moments that reassure and connect us,' he added. Holt announced he would step down in February after covering Trump throughout his first administration and earning praise for his ability to fact-check the leader in real time. He moderated the first presidential debate of 2016, covered January 6th riots and traveled to Israel to provide insight on Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel while anchoring NBC's 'Dateline.' In 2018, a Hollywood Reporter poll found that Holt was the most trusted television news personality in America. 'I will miss the team that puts it all together, my dear friends and my colleagues. But for now, I just want to say thank you to my incredibly supportive and patient family and all of you,' Holt said during his last show. Tom Llamas will succeed Holt as host and concurrently serve as the 'NBC Nightly News' managing editor. 'I wish Tom great success,' Holt said Friday.
